Meeting Gamzee Makara
by deathbyinsomnia
Summary: AU! Humanstuck! It's Tavros' first day at a new high school, the only "special needs" kid in the entire school. Feeling alone, he finds a friend in Karkat and his group of buddies, especially one in particular. PB&J! GamTav! This is my first HomeStuck fic so be nice! D: Rated T for LOTS of swearing! **Hiatus**
1. First Day Jitters

Tavros frowned as he stared at the front doors of his new high school, his mother at his side. He saw the dull light through the trees hit the front doors and he felt sick to his stomach as his arms folded across his chest. His mother looked at him in pity, and licked her lips in anticipation, wanting to soothe her baby boy for his first day at a new school. He looked up at her, smiled politely.

"Please, don't." he whispered and she frowned, nodding before kissing his cheek.

"I'll pick you up after, meet me at the back doors. Have a good day."

He ran through over a dozen scenarios of using a pity card from his mother to get out of school, knowing he had plenty to use on her. He swallowed down a bad taste in his mouth, judging against it. _Three more years._

He ran a his fingers through his thick brown hair, craning his neck to watch her go. She was a great mom, but she treated him much too fragile, and it bothered him. He found a ramp on the side of the building and propelled his wheelchair up, pressing the automatic door button, and heading inside. The stripe of hair was swiped back, sticking up in certain places. He'd never admit it, but Tavros hated looking in mirrors since the accident.

"Tavros... Nitram, is it?" a voice with a hitch to it came from the open door of the office. He wheeled his chair in and stopped in front of the boy, one who seemed pretty short, even at his lowered height. His black-rimmed glasses spotless, and his blond hair was swept upward with a lot of product. It didn't move in the slightest, Tavros noticed. The boy looked him up and down and a small smile appeared.

"My name is Eridan. I'm the student body president, it's very nice to meet you. Your mother filled out most of the paperwork. " Tavros furrowed his brow a bit.

_His V's sound like W's and he doubles his W's_, he thought curiously.

"However, I still need some basic things that she forgot to fill out." he says with a straight face, back into business-mode.

"Go ahead." his voice small, cracking slightly.

"Age?"

"15."

"Grade?"

"10th."

"Ethic background?"

Tavros' eyes widened a little.

"It's alright, no one will see but me since I keep records."

"Native American..." he said softly.

"Interesting. Favorite food?"

Tavros looked at him quizzically and he laughed haughtily, "Just a joke, Tav. Seriously, though."

He lightened up a little, surprised he made no comment about his legs, "Chicken Pot Pie."

Eridan nodded hesitantly, handing him his class schedule, "If I may ask, what's wrong with your legs?"

Tavros frowned, _here it comes_, "They're fake."

He rolled away, not wanting to see the look on his face, and headed towards third class on the crude map Eridan had drawn in the bottom corner before he'd gotten to school. Tavros would never know Eridan spent a half hour trying to make everything to scale so the new student wouldn't be lost. Eridan would never tell him, either.

School had started hours ago, but it took hours for his mother to coax him out of bed with the usual lines about making friends and having a future. Tavros, try as he might, could not see a future beyond the wheelchair.

...

Tavros stopped in front of the door to the class, well-aware it was half over, and looked at his lap, biting his lip. He considered coming back later, but the door opened and his eyes jerked up to the person who opened the door. A tall man with a blank expression save an almost-smile opened the door quietly, his voice was regal but bland, not stopping his lesson, as he swung the door wide open, motioning Tavros to follow him. Slowly, he did, until he was placed in a spot in the back where there was no desk-connected-to-a-chair like everyone else, but a table. He moved his wheelchair into place and a girl with a dark blue shirt stared at him indignantly.

A pale boy with a baggy grey sweatshirt glared at her, yelling, "What, Vriska? Never seen a goddamn wheelchair before?!"

The girl laughed, flipping her black hair over her shoulder with manicured nails, "I am just curious as to how a _cripple_ got in this school."

"Why don't you go send your Wonderland, flying fucks somewhere else, you arachnid whore!" he bit back.

Tavros clenched his teeth, staring wide-eyed into his textbook. He was _right there, _he _could hear._

A loud slam from the teacher's book on his desk, "Settle that outside the class."

Everyone stared at the three, except Tavros who stared lifelessly into his book, Karkat who watched Tavros, and Vriska who typed angry texts into her phone. The class ensued in utter silence beyond the teacher's mutterings. The class seemed longer than Tavros had wished.

Everyone left for lunch as soon as the bell rang, except for Tavros. He hung behind, the teacher beginning to eat an apple, reading the newspaper. After putting his book away as slowly as humanly possible, he rolled out of class before a hand on his shoulder stopped him.

"Sorry about that, New Kid, but she was being really fucking shitty." was his explanation.

Tavros almost laughed at the irony of it all, "And you weren't?"

"I was _defending you_, since you can't seem to do it yourself, fuckwad."

"I don't _need _defending, you're just too freaking loud." Tavros said with distaste.

The lanky boy paused.

"I'm Karkat." he said with a small laugh.

"Tavros."

"Wanna sit with me at lunch?"

He bit his lip before nodding, "Yeah, just do me a favor."

"Sure."

"Don't ask if I need a push."

Karkat shoved his hands into the oversized pockets of his pants cooly, "Wasn't gonna."

Tavros laughed, "Good."


	2. New Lunch Table

Rolling his chair beside Karkat, he finally arrived at a table in the back corner where, according to Karkat, you had a wide view of every table and was virtually off the grid. Tavros moved his backpack onto the table from his lap and two people sitting at the table looked up at him. Eridan, who Tavros immediately recognized and avoided eye contact with, smiled nervously.

"Want me to walk with you to get your lunch?" Eridan said softly.

"That's insensitive, you bottom-feeder." the other one muttered, whacking Eridan on the back of the head.

Karkat rolled his eyes, "Clam up, asshole, we need to get our food."

Eridan nodded, frowning as he walked up to the lunch lines with Karkat. Tavros looked at the boy sitting across from him, and tried to zone in on little details. He liked remembering such things, just in case.

His hair was half-blonde and half-black in a Cruella Deville manner, and the blonde side of his head had one brown eye and the black-haired side had a blue eye. As a rough guess by the facial features, he concluded that he was either Japanese or Korean, but he didn't know for sure. Noticing he was licking his teeth uncomfortably as he focused on a graphing notebook, he concluded after one more look at his face, he was probably a mix of the two.

"It's physics homework, in case you were wondering." he muttered with a heavy lisp, by which time Tavros realized was from the braces he wore.

"Is physics hard?" Tavros asked curiously, since he'd missed class.

"Let's just say I find digging my own grave much more fun."

Tavros deflated, "Well, lucky me."

"Why's that?"

"I missed that class today and I'd never taken it before."

"How? It's halfway through the year."

"I was homeschooled while I was... anyway, so my Advanced Placement levels are a little wonky."

He nodded in understanding, "I was home schooled until high school so I get it. I did my classes online, but in my case, I was a little ahead of everyone."

"I'm Tavros Nitram." Tavros said with an appreciative smile.

"Sollux. Captor. Weird names are commonplace around here so don't feel bad."

"Everyone I've met has pretty weird names."

Sollux laughed, "Bet Karkat's made you want to laugh your ass off."

Tavros grinned shyly, "Kind of."

Eridan and Karkat came back with trays in hand and the final bell sounded, meaning no one could now enter or exit the lunchroom until lunch was over.

Eridan sat on the corner by Tavros, and Karkat on the opposite side, one seat away. Everyone began eating their food, Tavros included. Pulling out a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and munching on it, Eridan tried striking up a conversation.

"Sorry about earlier... I didn't mean it that way."

"Didn't mean what, bubble brain?" Karkat directed the question to Tavros but referred to Eridan.

"I asked about his legs..." he looked ashamed, going back to eating his vegan tacos.

"What the fuck?! You just don't do that kind of shit, Er! That's like asking Sol if he's good at math 'cuz he's fucking Asian!"

Tavros laughed, "It's fine, really. Calm down."

Sollux scratched his cheek with his eraser, "He is calm, he just has the tendency to talk much too loud."

Karkat huffed at this, rolled his eyes, and plopped back in his chair to eat his sloppy joe. They were mostly silent until Sollux piped up, putting his finished homework away.

"Where's Gamzee?" Sollux asked pointedly, zipping up his bag with his retrieved honey-flavored graham crackers.

"How should I know where that clown is?"

"Maybe because he's your best friend?" Eridan enquired, finishing his mouthful of food.

"Shut it, fish food, the adults are talking." Karkat said off-handedly, "He's probably at home."

Sollux sighed, "Again? Really, he needs to worry about the truancy officers."

"I know, but apparently he had run out of his stuff and he broke a neighbor's mailbox."

"Driving? In that condition? How does he- you know, nevermind. I don't even care."

Tavros, having finished his sandwich, asked in confusion, "Who?"

"Right, you haven't met him-" Karkat was about to explain, but was interrupted.

"He's the school addict." Eridan said flatly, making Karkat glare at him.

"Choose your words wisely around me, Ampora, because I will hurt you for talking shit about Gam."

"It's not a lie, and you know it. Why not be blunt about it?"

"Chill, guys, it's only halfway through the day." Sollux said, unimpressed. "At least kill each other after the English test."

They'd been leaning toward each other and Tavros smiled weakly, trying to lighten to mood, "So, would one of you guys go with me to get my assignments I missed?"

They looked between each other and Karkat sighed, "I'll do it, Tavros."

Tavros brightened, "Thanks, Karkat."

Karkat shrugged, the table settling back into silence. Soon, everyone was finished and the bell rang, signalling the dismissal of lunch to the next class. With another mental review of his schedule, Tavros headed to his next class, a spot left for him near the front. A woman with a kind smile greeted everyone before starting the lesson. She called on Tavros occasionally, seeing if he understood, which he surprisingly did. After another laboring look at the clock, Tavros grinned, heading to his final class of the day- Art.

Once he got everything put away, he raced towards the art room, extremely excited. He tried his hardest to not run over anyone's feet in the hall, managing to be the first one to class. The teacher looked up at him, grinned slightly, his hair spiked out in the back.

"Nice to see ya, Tavros. Hope you like drawing. We're gonna learn a couple sketching tips today and tomorrow we start doing a picture, then we spend all of next week coloring and shading."

Tavros' smile grew wider, "Awesome."

"I'm Mr. Strider, but the title's annoying, so everyone calls me Dirk."

"Where do I sit?" Tavros asked, taking a look at the easels that littered the room.

"Anywhere you want, we're doing sketchbook practice. No assigned seats anyway."

Tavros nodded, moving his chair beside the window. After pulling out his sktechbook, a couple people had already walked in, picking metal folding chairs around the room to sit in. Tavros puts his earbuds in his ears, playing music with the sound on low, and sketches absentmindedly as he listens to Dirk teach. Once he's finished his doodle of a fairy, he turns his full attention to the teacher. Much too quickly, the class ends, and it's time to head home.

Adjusting some things in his bag, Dirk leans over his shoulder, "I like that. You're pretty good."

Tavros smiles shyly, pushing the sketchbook in his bag, zipping it up, and leaving the class. "Thanks."

He meets Karkat, who's waiting outside the door, and hurriedly heads to his first three classes and collects the papers. Karkat walks with him outside and Tavros' mom runs up and hugs him tightly.

"I was so worried!"

"Mom, I was only ten minutes late."

"We had to go get his work he missed. I'm Karkat, by the way." Karkat supplied, and she smiled gratefully.

"Thank you for going with him. I wouldn't want anything to happen to my baby boy."

Tavros rolled his eyes good naturedly, "Moooooom, I'm fine."

She pouted, "I'll take you home, Karkat, after I take Tavros home. Is that alright?"

Karkat shrugged, "Sure, I walk home anyway."

They all piled in the car and Ms. Nitram pulled into her driveway, getting out to help Tavros.

"I can walk from here, I'm a block over."

"Thanks for today."

Kakat smiled a little, "No problem. See you at school."

"See you there."

Karkat walked down the street and Tavros went into his room on the first floor, and pulled himself onto his bed. He smiled at the glow in the dark stars on his ceiling, turning on the TV to old cartoons. Tavros laughed at the cat and mouse, the blue dog, and the bears, and clapped, turning the lights out. He fell asleep watching old Scooby Doo reruns, still in his school clothes. At midnight, his mom checked in on him. She brushed his hair from his eyes and pulled the blankets around him.

"If only I'd listened to you."


	3. Meeting Gamzee Makara

Tavros woke up covered in sweat, hyperventilating. In a rush, he threw the blankets off and detached his prosthetic legs, tossing them across the room. He felt too suffocated. He reached down and rubbed the scars on his knees, where the rest of his legs used to be. Pulling himself into the wheelchair, he sped to the bathroom and puked into the toilet. Soft footsteps stopped behind him.

"Want a glass of water?" his mother said consolingly, her eyes tired.

Tavros shook his head but noticing the glass of ice water was already in her hand, he nodded and took the glass from her, taking a drink.

"Nightmares again?"

"No..."

"I'll be in my room if you need me, Tavros."

"Thanks."

Before leaving, she smiled at him, "You're never too old to cuddle with me, I'll even sing a lullaby."

He laughed, his throat still raw, "Thanks, but I'm fine."

" The door's always open." she said playfully before climbing back into bed.

Tavros brushed his teeth, took a look in the mirror and sighed, thinking how his mother has had to sleep alone ever since the accident. A shiver goes down his spine, remembering his nightmare. Rolling his chair beside his mother's bed, he climbed in and hugged her and she sang to him. He knew he was too old to share a bed with his mom, but it was the closest think to comfort he could get, so he didn't mind too much.

...

The next morning, he got up early, put on his prosthetic legs and changed before his mother woke up. He didn't sleep well but his mother's presence calmed his nerves. The lack of sleep showed in the bags under his eyes. Starting a pot of coffee, he prepared some bagels for his mother, as well as himself. Hearing a small shuffling behind him, his mother kissed his hair and gave him a brief hug.

"You're my hero." she said contentedly, pouring a cup of coffee.

"As long as I don't wear a cape."

Looking up from her cup, she smiled just a little, "Deal. Is that bagel mine?"

Tavros nodded, "As long as we carpool with Karkat from now on,"

"If he wants to,"

"If he wants to." he ammended.

"Seems like an okay boy. It's fine with me."

"We have a half hour to leave." he pointed to the clock, taking a bit of his bagel.

Jumping over to him, she snatched her bagel and coffee, running towards her room with the old robe of his dad's fluttering behind her. Vaguely, Tavros wondered if there was anyway he could get his mom to start dating so she could cool down. After getting ready and clamoring into the car, he decided it would be best to keep it to himself, she had enough on her plate. Rushing to the car in jeans and a baggy tee shirt, he almost wondered why his dad would ever leave such a wonderful woman. Almost.

...

Arriving at school an hour early, he got into the wheelchair, adjusted his legs and looked up at his mom. She glanced worriedly from him to the school's doors. He patted her arm reassuringly, and her smile only wobbled a little. He was proud of the improvement. No tears. He told her he'd be on time before going inside and heading to his first period class, math.

Upon entering, he noticed the teacher was already standing there at her cart, doodling away on her laptop. She had on black lipstick, a white sweater and tight, pink slacks, her hair curly and light blond. He noticed from the overhead, she'd been doodling cats.

"I'm Tavros, the new kid."

She looked up and grinned, "Hey, aren't you a cutie, pick whatever seat you want."

"Is, um, Karkat in this class?"

Her smile widened, "Vantas? Yup. Want to sit by him?"

He nodded and she pointed to a seat in the corner, "Vantas, Captor, Makara, and Ampora sit there. You can move stuff around and sit there. I don't mind."

He smiled, realizing Makara was probably the guy Gamzee's last name, "Thanks."

After moving two of the extra chairs from the table, he had enough room for his wheelchair. Getting his makeup work from his backpack, he got out a pencil to start working on it. Without warning, the teacher sat in the chair next to him.

"I'm Miss R, by the way, short for Roxy." she mentioned between pointing out how to do the problems.

Tavros understood, catching on quickly. He even managed to peck around in his physics work, with help from Roxy. He didn't expect much when he first saw her, but was surprised that she actually knew what she was talking about. Once the first bell rang, she returned to her laptop and doodled as students came in.

Eridan came in first, sitting on the end across Tavros; then Sollux, sitting beside him; afterwards, Karkat came in with a really tall boy with wavy black hair and a dreamy smile. Karkat sat beside Sollux and Gamzee sat across from Karkat, beside Tavros.

"Gamzee, this is Tavros Nitram, he's new here."

"I'm Gamzee Makara, it's nice to meet your motherfuckin' aquaintance." his voice was deep and raspy, but the smile remained and his tone was carefree.

Tavros smiled, his voice slightly louder than usual, "Nice to meet you."

"So, why are you here so early, Tavros? You were already very settled in and I'm usually first to class." Eridan asked curiously.

"I fell asleep last night without doing make-up work, came in an hour early to do it."

"Wow, bro, that's some real dedication." Gamzee grinned.

"Not really. Ms. R helped a lot."

"Ms. R? You sure?" Karkat quirked his eyebrow.

"Yeah, why?"

"Okay, class~ Here's the work for today! I'll be back before the end of the period, I need a drink!" Roxy smiled, skittering off.

"That's why." Sollux pointed with his thumb, "She doesn't know which way is up."

"Maybe she's smarter than you think."

"Anything's possible." Eridan muttered.

"I'm going in the courtyard, anyone wanna come?" Gamzee asked.

Getting no response, he shrugged, walking off.

Karkat sighed, "I'm really behind on work. Mind babysitting for me?"

Tavros shook his head, finishing, "If I don't come back, tell fuschia she's always gonna be my favorite color."

Karkat laughed, "How you can say that with a straight face," he stopped to laugh. "Just go."

Tavros wheeled out the door, avoiding Vriska's eyes as he went after Gamzee. It didn't take long to catch up. He was strolling through the halls without a care in the world.

Gamzee smiled, "What's up, motherfucker?

"I'm going with you."

"Babysitting?"

"Apparently so." Tavros said casually, looking up at him.

Gamzee smiled at him in return, "That's motherfuckin' peachy and all, just as long as we don't get caught."

"Why?"

"Need a smoke." his voice seemed weaker as he said 'smoke', feeling ashamed.

"Oh."

Then they fell silent, they both went down the ramp into the courtyard and hid in some bushes. Gamzee pulled out a blunt, lit it with a zippo and took a drag. They were quiet, but contented with each other's company. Gamzee spared a look at Tavros before blowing the smoke from his mouth.

* * *

**_Author's Note:_**

**_Just to be clear, the Alpha kids are teachers (plus Doc Scratch)._**

**_They just happened this way, no real reason why._**

**_Here's the classes by period: _**

**_Roxy- Math teacher_**

**_Jake- Physics teacher_**

**_Doc Scratch- History teacher_**

**_Jane- English teacher_**

**_Dirk- Art teacher_**


	4. Skipping Math Class

**_Author's Note_**

**_Okay, so I've been thinking and I'm going to idle this fic. I'll probably come back to it in the future if you guys promise to wait for me. I will not be updating on AO3, either, until I start up again. Or possibly rewrite it entirely. Here's what I wrote before I ended this. Here's what I've got of the next chapter._**

* * *

Tavros began smiling to himself, remembering how Gamzee and Karkat looked together. He started giggling to himself.

Karkat with his black hair, face littered with freckles, and jaden eyes glaring up at Gamzee, talking loudly; Gamzee with his calm attitude, zip-up hoodie, Sublime tee, and skinny jeans with Converse. They were almost polar opposites; and looking at him now, he saw more. Gamzee's hair wasn't just black, as he initially thought, because the sun would hit it and it seemed like a dark purple. His eyes were black, yes, but when he looked just right, he could see the pupil. His thoughts stopped in their tracks when he noticed Gamzee staring right back.

"Hey, Tav, you okay?"

"Yeah, I was just looking at your eyes." the truth came out naturally and he wanted to smack himself, it's not like he didn't say anything tottaly creepy just now.

"They're black."

"I know." Tavros smiled knowingly. "I just have a staring problem."

He laughed, "And why is that?"

"I like art, and you're an interesting subject."

" Qué significa eso? Que te gusta mi cara?" Gamzee guffawed, grinding the blunt into his shoe and throwing it away. (A.N. What does that mean? That you like my face?)

"I'm sorry. I don't speak... I think that was Spanish?"

"Sí, sí, sí. Eso era español, mi amigo." (A.N. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was Spanish, my friend.)

"Let me rephrase. I can't speak it, or understand it."

"Oh," he chuckled, "Sorry, motherfucker. I just really like the sound of it. English is my second language, but I know it almost as good as Spanish."

"So you're from Spanish descent?"

"Yeah, my dad and my mom were."

"Were?"

"Yeah... my mom died when I was just a little niño and my dad left me a while back. Jumped back and forth through group homes and foster care until I got old enough to live alone," he seemed calm as ever. "But no big deal, I pay my way through."

"You're an independent?"

"Yeah. Cool, right?"

"Yeah... we should head back in, she should be back soon."

"Yeah," Gamzee nodded, "Need to finish that worksheet too."


End file.
